Before the Turn of the 20th Century Most of the New York and New Jersey Metropolitan area was Rural. Oil Lanterns were the norm and the big cities were using natural gas for heating and lighting. Gas Lighting had its Drawbacks, To make it brighter you also made it hotter in the room, and having open gas jets and flames in enclosed indoor spaces made it dangerous in many ways.
In 1881 Godalming, England came to world attention when it became the first town in the United Kingdom to install a public supply of electricity, and the first in the world to boast electric street lighting, driven by a dynamo at Westbrook watermill. There system soon failed to maintenance costs and unreliability and the town faded back to oil and gas lighting for many years to after.
In the U.S. Thomas Edison was working hard at making his system reliable. In 1880 he started the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of New York. His Pearl Street Generating Station was the first to supply the Wall Street Bankers office of JP Morgan. It was exactly 3 p.m. on Sept. 4, 1882 when Thomas Alva Edison stood in the Wall Street offices of financial mogul J.P. Morgan and switched on his Edison incandescent light bulb – a bulb powered by a generator at his new Pearl Street Station power plant several city blocks away.
Grand Brass Lamp Parts, a small shop on Grand Street, just a few blocks from pearl street, was selling Oil and Gas Fittings. Electricity soon took hold as a reliable energy source and the owners of Grand Brass Lamp Parts took Notice changing the name of the company to Grand Brass and Electrical Supply in 1913 when we started selling Electrical Supply's along with its offerings of Oil and Gas Fittings . The Electrical Age Exploded in Down Town New York concentrated around the area known as the Bowery and Chattem Square. Grand Brass was Known as a Popular Supplier at this time Selling Retail and Wholesale Lighting Parts a block from the Bowery at the Corner of Grand Street and Elizabeth Street. People Looking for Parts for Lighting would travel from far or near to visit this unique source of lighting products.
Comments